Four linked stories of Hell, and Life, and Life in Hell. Illustrated with paintings by Don Michael, Jr.
“Summer Breeze” – The demon Jike decides he needs a change.
“Inferno” – Undead hellcat Canto gets a night out on campus of lust and gluttony and the other deadly sins.
“Sweet Tooth” – Donut baker Ted Millet, divorced and broke, has a new customer that makes his ex-wife seem almost human.
And in the novella “Afterimage” Emily M-Something March, dead and damned for thirty years, finds herself back in her home town with a fifty-foot demon looking for her.
Brain Freeze & Other Stories – A collection of eight Speculative Fiction and Slipstream stories by David Michael, with illustrations by Don Michael, Jr.
“Brain Freeze” – Crouched on all fours, eye nubs just over the edge of the curb, Boollf’s ear bones vibrated with the sound of the low churning, the sirens’s song, the goal of tonight’s mission…
“Callisto” – She came out of the hut and the butt end of a spear hit her in the face. She had only an instant to see the two men, strangers, one of them holding her boys, pinning the boys’s arms…
“Indian Summer” – Anna, hurting from the death of her best friend, isn’t ready to give up the gray gloom of autumn for the sunshine of Indian summer. But maybe more than just the sun has come back to her.
“Constellation” – The Great Bear looks down on the world and sees a woman, a mother like herself, whose children have been taken from her.
“The Perfect Hiding Place” – The house next door has been sold and the new neighbors are moving in. Do you think they’re religious? They seem to have a lot of kids. Do you think they’re hiding something? They look ethnic. Do you think they might be worth robbing? No, obviously, they can’t be *monkeys*…
“Selene” – Her village is burned, her beloved husband is dead. Only she can save her sons. The Moon bears silent witness as she runs through the night and the storm to reclaim what remains of her life.
“Nostalgia” – Two yellowing Polaroids, snapshots of a little girl at the fair. Two different childhoods separated by the death of her father. One childhood she can’t remember, ruined by the one she wants to forget. When her boyfriend’s “birthday surprise” turns out to be a date at the same fair, Sharon finds herself face to face with both.
“Evanescent” – She’s the girl you meet every year for the first time. She has red-gold hair, sky-blue eyes, and just a splash of freckles across her cheeks. She’s as young as you are, or as old. She dances in the rain and splashes in the puddles. She jumps in the leaves and spins with the wind. She steps out of the fog to smile at you, then disappears before you can ask her name…
“Effie Two-Five” – A new science fiction short story by David Michael!
Make a wish. Brace for impact. Find a vein and take a hit of the new–and highly illegal–wonder drug with the street name “Effie Two-Five”. You can be faster. Stronger. Anything you want to be–even a porno superhero. But be careful. Effie two-five has a serious learning curve. And you should have a lot of munchies handy. (8300 word short story).
“Secondhand Coffin” – A new ghost story by David Michael!
A coffin isn’t always a final destination. It certainly wasn’t for Lacey. Murdered, Lacey spends her days as the unseen occupant of a showroom coffin. At night, though, when the lid is closed, she is once again wrapped in a rug and covered with cement, reliving the horror of her death. Until the night another body is dropped into her coffin. (2500-word short story)
The World Wears Thin – A collection of eight Sci-Fi and Horror stories by David Michael, with illustrations by Don Michael, Jr.
“A Fine Mess” – Kenneth hunts edible Strings in the Frayed remnants of the vegetation of the world.
“Enamored” – Chick-lit meets cyberpunk as overworked, underappreciated Roxy heads to work.
“Curtain Call” – The White Hot Hemisphere Community Theater Company chose Shakespeare’s Hamlet for their first production after the cataclysm–and possibly their last before the end of the world.
“Insanity” – Corporal Jonathan “Drooz” Andrews wakes up in the middle of a war and wishes he remembered what he spent his re-enlistment bonus on.
“Encounter” – The Traveler tries to help in the aftermath of a riot in the Trog Ghetto.
“Until Death Do Us Part” – Ross and Marjorie grow old together in undead retirement.
“Baptism” – Drunk on mojitos, high on love, and smelling of sex on the beach, Myra Acevedo went swimming and drowned. Then she became the end of the world.
Bonus Story: “Roxy Overload” – Roxy, from “Enamored”, heads home after work on an evening when it seems everyone–her best friend, her mom, her men–even her dog–wants a piece of her.
